A GEOSCIENCEBASED DIGITAL MAPPING APPROACH FOR MSL LANDINGSITE SELECTION

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A GEOSCIENCE-BASED DIGITAL MAPPING APPROACH FOR
MSL LANDING-SITE SELECTION

• K.L. Tanaka, J.A. Skinner, Jr., and T.M. Hare
• Astrogeology Team, U.S. Geological Survey,
  Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (ktanaka_at_usgs.gov)

A digital tool to help with evaluating and
precisely locating the MSL landing site
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Meeting the challenges for MSL landing-site
selection and locating

• Our GIS tool is being developed to
• Incorporate engineering requirements
• Address science criteria
• Access multiple data sets
• Determine targetable regions
• Assess characteristics of potential landing
  ellipses
• Optimize safety, science, roving ability
• Achieve user friendliness for community use

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Engineering constraints

• 60 N to 60S
• MOLA elevation lt2000 and -2000 m
• lt3 slope at 2 to 5 km lengths (MOLA altimetry
  we used 5 for 460 m DEM), lt15 at 20 to 40 m
  (MOLA point-to-point altimetry and pulse-spread
  data) and 5 m (hi-res stereo topography or
  photoclinometry)
• Rock abundance lt10 (rocks lt0.6 m tall Viking)
• Wind lt30 m/s horizontal and lt10 m/s vertical
  (Rafkin)
• Radar backscatter cross section gt-20 db at Ka
  band
• Thermal inertia lt100 J m-2 s-0.5
• Albedo gt0.25
• Temperature 145K lt T lt310K, diurnal range
  lt145K

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MSL science objectives General

• Potential past or present habitat
• Access to possible organic material
• Indicators of climate history, particularly
  during Noachian

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Potential past or present habitat and access to
possible organic material (i.e., geologic
evidence for liquid water and hydrothermal
activity)

• Present/recent
• Gullies
• Youngest volcanic rocks, including vents, fluvial
  channels, superposed craters
• Past (Noachian)
• Valleys
• Paleolakes
• Noachian surfaces
• Oldest volcanic rocks, including vents and
  fluvial features
• Old, dissected impact craters
• Mineralogic signatures (phyllosilicates,
  sulfates, hematite)

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Indicators of climate history, particularly
during Noachian

• Noachian
• Layered sediments in Noachian terrain (especially
  associated with fluvial valleys and lake basins)
• Altered, hydrated minerals
• Present/recent
• Gullies mid-latitude mantle mass-wasting,
  periglacial, and glacial features
• Hydrogen in near surface

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Science data compiled in map form

• Geologic epoch (Tanaka et al.)
• Channels (Carr and Chuang)
• Gullies (Edgett and Malin Balme et al.)
• Mantles (Milliken et al.)
• Craters gt5 km (Barlow)
• Graben and wrinkle ridges (Scott et al.)
• TES mineral maps (Bandfield)
• GRS H2O (Boynton et al.)
• Crater paleolakes (Cabrol and Grin)
• Dunes (Titus et al.)
• Noachian layered deposits (Arabia Terra Tanaka
  et al.)

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MSL landing-site GIS Model

• Uses ArcMap model builder software
• Can be built into a user-friendly Internet GUI
  tool
• Assisted by JPL and ESRI personnel
• Accesses many data sets in gridded formats
• User inputs permitted for most parameters
• Weighting
• Buffering
• Output maps
• Engineering and landing circle-based
  targetability (circle has to fit)
• Science and proximity-based quality (based on
  user inputs)
• Statistics for given landing circles

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MSL GIS ScienceInterest Model
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MSL GIS Engineering Model
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MSL GIS Targetability Model
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sample MSL GIS science criteria map
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sample MSL GIS science interest model
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sample MSL GIS engineering/targetability model
(incomplete data)
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sample MSL GIS combined science/engineering model
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Example of Tabulated Science Interest Model Data
for Proposed Sties
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Future work

• Update engineering constraints
• TES rock abundance, slopes, radar backscatter,
  temperature
• Improve science feature maps
• More complete mapping
• More accurate positioning
• New features
• GIS model improvements
• More accurate calculations
• Web interface for users